10 Wrestlers Who Should Replace Shelton Benjamin As SmackDown's New Star

Sami Zayn has struggled since the Brand Split. Having voiced his trepidation at being drafted to Raw, the same show as longtime rival Kevin Owens, the former NXT Champion went on to defeat KO in an instant classic at Battleground, but has laboured ever since. Zayn has eaten two consecutive losses, and wasn’t even featured on this week’s show: amazingly, after the biggest win of his career, WWE Creative appear to have nothing to Zayn on Raw.

The solution? Send him to SmackDown, and make him a star. Zayn will be a WWE main eventer someday - he’s too popular and talented not to be - but for now, he’d be an immediate boon to the blue brand’s upper-midcard, and a great choice to build that particular scene around. Zayn is a proven big match performer, and if he switched to Tuesday nights, he’d likely be the best out-and-out wrestler on Daniel Bryan’s roster. He’d standout from the get-go, regardless of his creative direction.

It remains to be seen whether or not inter-brand roster trades will be a thing, but if they are, sending Zayn to SmackDown makes too much sense. He’s far too good a talent to rot on Raw without direction, and while fans would rather see him competing for the top belt sooner rather than later, there are countless others ahead of him in the pecking order.

Let Sami Zayn rule the roost on SmackDown’s midcard scene for a year or so, and WWE will have a serious star on their hands.